There are certain games
that just stick out in your mind for various reasons. I distinctly remember the
first time I played Doom due to the scares and violence, I remember Manhunt due
to the unbelievable violence content, and I remember a little game called
Leisure Suit Larry from back in the 90’s due to the fact that it was the first
game I had played where the object was to simply have sex. Graphically, games
weren’t anywhere near what they are now obviously, but LSL was fun trying to
solve little puzzles like turning on a TV to get a bouncer out of the way so you
could sneak up to a prostitute’s room and stuff like that. Well, LSL is back for
the PC, and it provides an entertaining (if not somewhat juvenile) romp through
the college life of the original Leisure Suit Larry’s cousin, Larry Lovage.
LSL : Magna Cum Laude is
set up as a third person seek and find kind of game, so you navigate Larry
through a variety of college settings like dorm rooms and campus buildings,
courtyards, and into downtown areas for one sole purpose … to obtain items from
young ladies (and try to sleep with them in the process) to prove that you were
with them so you can get on a game show to have more sex with women. Along the
way, you will engage in dialogue with them, find items for them, and then take
the ultimate tests to try and achieve your desire to hop in the sack.
These tests of skill that
you perform pretty much consist of a few different things that get harder as
they go. When you first begin talking to ladies on campus, you get a bar at the
bottom of the screen where you navigate a smiling sperm through a variety of
different sayings which can either be positive or a little more devious to try
and build up an interest meter. For example, hitting green smileys can get a
decent conversation going, but then hitting a red “phallic symbol” will cause
him to say something about what he wants to do to them or may cause him to
become fixated on their breasts which can lower the interest meter. If you win
by getting the interest up where it needs to be (in this or any of the games),
your confidence goes up, and you get to keep the conversation going. You can
also earn tokens to buy things like nude pics of certain girls or coffee to help
alleviate some drunkenness, which I’ll explain …
Usually, after getting
the girl interested in talking with you, it’s time for Larry to try and get them
drunk so that he can try to take advantage of their altered state by playing a
game of quarters. You use the mouse to wind up and bounce the quarter on the
table, and both you and your “prey” have only a certain amount of drinks before
you are drunk. If Larry gets her drunk first, he gets to then try to talk her
into going back to his or her room (swimming sperm game again) to do the deed.
If she wins, Larry winds up drunk (where you can either purchase coffee or just
go pee in a corner somewhere to alleviate it), loses confidence, and then you
get to try it again. There are other games to play here and there, like hitting
arrow keys in certain patterns laid out by the computer to line dance, jump on a
trampoline (with a full figured woman to get a look at her assets while she
bounces up and down), or get items to help your chances with a young lady, but
the speech and quarters games are standard with pretty much all of them.
Honestly, the game is
entertaining largely due to the conversations that go on and things that are
said, like Larry pretending to be a country music promoter or some big shot to
try and impress someone, but the problem is that while most of the funny scenes
are going on (like during conversations when you are intentionally messing him
up which really will get you laughing out loud quite a few times), you have to
look at the conversation bar rather than at what he and she are doing on screen.
There is apparently some funny visuals in a lot of it too, but I missed quite a
bit of those.
The biggest issue with
the game to be perfectly honest is the fact that it is just plain repetitive.
The humor value goes a pretty good way and it will keep you going to a certain
point, but after a while talking and playing quarters over and over again to try
and hop in the sack with a potential victim gets dull. After going for the first
20 minutes or so, most gamers I know (me included) will lose interest and look
to play something else. It is very funny to see some of his misadventures along
the way, but ultimately entertainment value always tends to win out over nude
bodies, as we have seen in the past with games like “The Guy Game” or “XXX BMX”.
Graphically, LSL has
obviously come a long way from where it was back when I first played it. The
characters are cartoony looking and the nudity really is, well … nicely done
(with a censored bar over the more racy body parts). All the right places jiggle
and move when girls are doing their thing, and the environments have a cluttered
college campus look to them. There are also some funny visuals tossed into the
environment as well, like signs for a sperm donor business or two female
roommates having sign up sheets on their door … one for tutoring and the other
for sex. (You’d figure Larry would just sign up and be done with it, but that
probably wouldn’t give you much to play, right?)
The biggest factor that
really won out in LSL is the sound. The voices were great, and the conversations
at times literally will have you busting out in laughter. Haring the dialogue
that goes on between Larry and his potential ladies or other little conflicts
that he gets into really is a hoot, and while loaded with innuendos and cursing,
it at least does a good job of keeping you knowing what is going on since you
probably will miss a lot on screen.
Overall, this is one of
those games that is simply a way to toss a lot of T & A and sex in the face of
the player while forgetting that most adult gamers (obviously who it caters to)
also care about getting a solid game to play. One of the things that made the
original so much fun was the fact that there was a lot more to do to get Larry
where he needed to go, and a lot more to keep players entertained, but this time
around it just felt like the developers simply focused on tossing boobs out on
the screen versus having to make you really work for it since you just do the
same primary things over and over and over again. Don’t get me wrong … it is a
very funny game, but probably won’t be worth the money for most of you gamers
out there. If you have to look at nude forms on your PC, go to one of the
50,000,000 free websites and save your hard earned money for something else.
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Gameplay: 6.0
Most of the game
revolves around Larry looking for love … er, well sex. Each encounter has you
talking to them and then trying to get them drunk, and while there are some
other games to play and get into which consist of timed button pressing, the
overall gameplay remains the same throughout.
Graphics: 7.1
The game looks
pretty good overall, and the designers did a good job in portraying the
environments and making the females that Larry runs into very “well endowed”,
including movement in all the right places.
Sound: 7.5
In my personal
opinion, this is really what saved the game from completely bottoming out for
me. The conversations are very well done, and there are thousands of them
programmed in while Larry is trying to woo that special someone, most of which
will have you cracking up.
Difficulty: Easy
While the games
get increasingly more difficult, they are pretty much the same over and over
again so you get the hang of it quickly and it’s all about timing. The
repetitiveness of the game also will help to move you along pretty quickly.
Concept: 6.1
Again, I thought
there was a LOT of things that could have been done here to really make this
game offensive, funny, racy and enjoyable, but it seems like somewhere along the
way the developers simply focused on the sex part versus the gameplay.
Overall: 6.1
One thing that
can definitely be said here is that the game is funny, and it will provide some
good laughs along the way while you are playing it. In reality, most of the
adult gamers that I have talked to will find it to be repetitive and one sided
most of the way through. If you are going to buy it I recommend caution, even
with the low price tag.
